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Olive oil played a crucial role in the ancient Olympiad. The ideal of the Olympic Games was inspired by the legend of Hercules. Athletes anointed themselves with olive oil before the Games. Victors were crowned with a wreath of olive branches and awarded with amphorae of oil. The branches were always cut from a special […]
The olive tree figures large in the Greek myths and in essence is at the very foundations of western civilization. According to legend, Athens got its name after the goddess Athena and the god Poseidon competed to deliver the most useful gift to mankind. Poseidon donated a splendid war horse. Athens bestowed an olive tree […]
The silver-green foliage of the olive tree has graced the mountains and shores of Greece from as far back as 60,000 years ago. Archaeological evidence attests to the long and continuous presence of the olive tree on Greek soil. Leaves of the oldest known cultivated trees, dating back 55,000 years, have been unearthed on the […]
Yemista is the generic term in Greek for stuffed vegetables, and there are myriad recipes in this category of foods. Generally, stuffed vegetables are a summer preparation, and the classics include stuffed peppers, tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplants. Often these are all prepared in the same pan, with the same stuffing, and baked all together. The […]
The ancient Greeks had a decidedly more complex palate when it came to sauces than do their contemporary heirs. In today’s Greek kitchen, sauces and dressings tend to be relatively simple and easy to prepare. Avgolemono. This is the fundamental Greek sauce-liaison, used to flavor all sorts of dishes, from soups to stews to stuffed, […]
In ancient religions, eggs (but not necessarily hen’s eggs) played an important role in the fertility rites held during the spring Equinox at the end of March. Eggs were used symbolically in the orgiastic worship rituals held in honor of Dionyssus, as well as in the rituals surrounding the worship of the ancient fertility goddess […]
One of the most curious sights at the Athens Central Market and at itinerant farmers’ markets are the egg-vendors, erstwhile entrepreneurs who sell nothing but…eggs. If anything attests to the importance of the egg on the Greek table it is this commercial specialization. (That’s not to say, of course, that you can’t find eggs in […]
SWEETS IN THE GREEK KITCHEN Seasonal fruit is the dessert of choice among traditional Greeks, a custom maintained to this day both at home and in tavernas. But the Greek sweet repertoire is nonetheless large and diverse. Generally they fall into several categories: spoon sweets; whole-pan baked sweets; creams; fried and honey-drizzled sweets; cookies and […]
Greece’s sun-soaked islands are home to some of the country’s most unique foods. Nothing conjures up the dreamy images of Greece better than the Aegean, home to countless islands big and small and to cooking traditions as old as Homer. Islanders have their unique existence, defined by the deepest bond to place and familial roots, […]
By the 7th century b.C. Rhodes was a noteworthy producer and trader of wines. The island’s wines reached every part of the ancient world, so important an export they were. Broken amphorae with the Rhodian indication of origin have been found in many disparate parts of the Mediterranean. Even under the Ottomans, as trade from […]